Are you a “better performing” physician practice?

The Medical Group Management Association (www.mgma.com) annually releases a report profiling the characteristics of the nation's better-performing medical groups. The better-performing groups tended to post higher overall profits, employ larger support staffs, and bring in higher revenue than other groups.

Characteristics of the better-performing groups iare usually the following:

• Investment in information technology (IT). IT costs per full-time-equivalent physician are higher for better-performing groups, suggesting an "investment" in major capital investments
• Higher productivity. The top groups conduct many more procedures per year than their counterparts
• Improved cash flow. Better-performing groups consistently lowered their gross fee-for-services charges in accounts receivable (A/R). They also post significantly lower A/R days than others, had higher collection percentages, and had substantially lower levels of debt